


the day my heart became a thorn

by ifeelpersonallyattacked



Series: the bitter scent of lemons and your cologne [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Breaking Up & Making Up, Crying, Kerberos Mission, M/M, Memories, Misunderstandings, Sad, a lot of crying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 14:01:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19906876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifeelpersonallyattacked/pseuds/ifeelpersonallyattacked
Summary: Adam had thought he and Takashi had settled their differences over the Kerberos Mission. He had made his peace with it, knowing that throughout it all, they'd still have each other. That is, until Takashi leaves a piece of his love behind.Written for Adashi Month Day 2: Canonverse





	the day my heart became a thorn

**Author's Note:**

> lmao this was supposed to be longer but oh well !

_ Launch Day: August 31st, 2134 _

  
  


Adam woke up to an empty bed and an empty heart. Takashi’s half of the bed was empty and cold, he realized. He spared a quick glance at the clock and his blood turned to ice when he realized that it is 8:33. Less than half an hour before the scheduled launch and Adam is  _ not with Takashi.  _ How could this happen? How could he have allowed himself to sleep in? Why did Takashi’s alarm not wake him up? And most importantly, why did Takashi not wake Adam up himself?

He hurriedly sat up in their bed, shivering a bit as the air-conditioned atmosphere of the room hits his chest. Takashi always did like it rather cold. It soothed his muscles, he claimed. Adam always went along with it with a smile and a shoulder swat. 

There would be no more shoulder swatting for a while, it seemed. 

Quickly, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. The sun was shining through the cracks in their curtains and he forced himself to smile. It was a nice day, he thought, good for flying. 

He was trying so hard to be optimistic for Takashi, even if he wasn’t there. After their fight, he had tried so hard to mean the words he had said. He thought it would be better to rip the band-aid off and have a clean breakup with Takashi. Of course, they’d both be sad for a while, but it would be better in the end. Or so he thought. 

As it turns out, drinking alone in your dorm late at night was a surefire way to get the truth out of anyone. And as it  _ also  _ turns out, stumbling over to your ex-fiance’s old dorm(wherever Takashi went when they fought) at 1:38 in the morning, drunk out of your mind, and half-crying was not the best way to get your ex-fiance back. 

But Takashi really was wonderful. He had taken him back that night, accepted his snot-filled drunken apologies, and allowed him to lay against his chest as he cried his eyes out. Soothing him and smoothing out his hair all the while. 

They had fallen asleep together that night, wrapped in each other’s arms. Where they belonged. When Adam woke up, he was mortified, apologizing over and over while Takashi just laughed and kissed his forehead. 

“Just don’t go anywhere,” he had said, his voice filled with love. 

Adam wasn’t planning to. He’d wait for Takashi forever if he had to. And it wasn’t as if Takashi would go anywhere. Sure, he’d be billions of miles away, but he’d still be with Adam. They’d still be Takashi and Adam, Adam and Takashi. 

But now was not the time for heartfelt reminiscing about their love. He needed to get down to the launch pad immediately, if he wanted to see Takashi off. Haphazardly, he threw on some pajama pants left on the floor and one of his old tee-shirts he had left hanging over a chair. He didn’t bother to comb his hair or brush his hair. For a minute, he couldn’t find his glasses and almost panicked, but then saw them dangling off the foot of the bed of all places. Must have been tossed there after their...ahem, bedroom activities. 

He wasted no time in grabbing them and jamming them onto his face, not caring that they were slightly askewed. All he cared about was getting out as quickly as possible. 

He had made it out of their bedroom, past their living room, and had almost made it out of the kitchen when he spotted something shiny sitting on the island that surely had not been there before. 

Adam stopped dead in his tracks, his heart dropping to his stomach. For what lay on the island was something he had never hoped to Takashi without, especially if he was to go away for three years. 

It was Takashi’s engagement ring. 

Adam slowly crept towards the ring as if it were a bomb about to go off. There had to be some logical explanation for this, there was no way Takashi would leave the ring there. Perhaps he had taken it off for some reason and forgot to put it back on. Yes, that was it. He’d just bring the ring to Takashi right now and everything would be fine. 

That was the plan until he saw the note. 

It looked to have been hastily written, but Adam could clearly tell it was Takashi’s handwriting. 

With shaking hands, he picked up the note and began to read what it said. It wasn’t very long, but before he had even finished reading it, Adam was crying. 

_ I’m sorry. I can’t put you through this anymore. I can’t watch you suffer because of me. I know you’re hiding your true feelings about the mission for me. You don’t have to anymore.  _

_ You were right all along.  _

This wasn’t right. No, it wasn’t right at all. Didn’t Takashi know that Adam would wait forever for him? Hadn’t he made it clear enough during that night when he had been drunk that he was sorry for the things he said? That he hadn’t meant them in the slightest and that he’d love Takashi forever?

Had the fury-filled words he had spat during their initial fight really affected Takashi that much? 

Adam had a horrible feeling in his chest, like something was constricting his heart and not allowing him to even breathe. This was all his fault, it had to be. He was the one who had pushed Takashi away in the first place, thinking it was the right thing to do. He had eventually come to his senses, of course, but it seemed Takashi took the words to heart and had now gotten it into his head that Adam had been  _ right  _ when had been so, so wrong. 

He was crying openly now, the tears dripping onto the note and staining it almost beyond comprehension. How could he have been so careless?! How could he have been so idiotic?! 

He had to fix this. He  _ would  _ fix this if it was the last thing he did. Clutching both the note and the ring, he tore out of their room, not bothering to close or lock the door behind him. 

It was 8:37 now. He still had time. Adam was running faster than he had ever run in his life, sprinting down the hallway at the speed of light. He was still crying and he was sure that he gave more than one of his fellow officers a good scare. But it didn’t matter, they didn’t matter in the slightest. All that mattered was getting to Takashi. 

Finally, after what seemed like hours of running, he finally reached the pilot’s outfitting room where Takashi was sure to still be. 

“ _ Takashi!”  _ he called, his voice sounding very much like the howl of a wounded wolf, “ _ Please!  _ I need to talk to you! I know you’re in there, so please-”

He was cut off by the door swinging open, but the person who opened it was not who he wanted to see. It was one of his colleagues, Roy, who seemed to be suiting up for regular flight drills. “Adam?” he said, clearly confused, “Why are you-”

“Have you seen Takashi?!” Adam interrupted, his eyes wild with desperation, “I need to talk to him, he’s-”

Roy held up a hand to silence him. “Okay, calm down. He was coming out of here just as I was coming in. That was about…” he paused for a moment, “Fifteen minutes ago, maybe?”

A rather hysterical sound escaped his throat and he was running off to the launch pad before Roy could get another word out. Adam could hear him calling out for him to wait. He would not. 

If Takashi was suited up, then they were running early. It meant that Takashi was most likely already at the launch pad and would probably be taking off any minute now. 

He wished he would run faster. 

His eyes were blurred by tears as he practically flew towards the launch pad. 

_ I love you, Takashi, I love you so much...more than you’ll ever know…please don’t let it be too late… _

Adam knew that the launch pad was at the end of a very long tarmac, but he was determined to get there. He never slowed down or stopped even once, he wouldn’t allow himself to. There was only him and the ring and running. 

Then, at last, he was outside and running down the tarmac. He could see Takashi’s ship in the distance and Takashi himself, boarding it behind Commander Holt and Sam. 

_ No...I’m too late… _

“ _ TAKASHI!”  _ he screamed desperately, pushing himself to run faster, “ _ Takashi, please!”  _

Takashi didn’t seem to hear him. Maybe the wind was too loud, or he was talking with Sam, but Takashi wasn’t hearing him, wasn’t hearing his plea. 

“NO!” Adam shrieked. His bare feet were burning on the concrete of the tarmac, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. His Takashi was leaving, leaving without knowing how much Adam truly loved him. He was leaving without his engagement ring, a promise of their love. He was leaving, thinking that he was doing the right thing. 

The door closed behind the three pilots and Adam could feel a tiny piece of his soul wither away. The countdown was sure to be beginning now, judging by the slow hum of the ship’s engines. 

Still, Adam continued to run and run and run, a small part of him still believing he could stop this whole thing if he tried hard enough. 

But soon enough, the ship’s engines started up completely, roaring to life so loudly Adam winced. He slowed to a halt, watching helplessly as the ship rose into the air, gaining speed every second it was airborne. 

He suddenly felt very small on the tarmac, feeling the constant stream of tears flowing down his face. Takashi...had left without the ring. Had left thinking that Adam was better off without him. 

Adam let out a small sob. Then another, and another. Before long, he was bawling like a baby and had collapsed on the tarmac in his grief, cradling the ring to his chest. 

It was all he had left. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! leave comments if you enjoyed and be sure to check out @AdashiMonth for the prompts!


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